Tilting Sequels?

[Dreamer]

I was wondering about the tilt angle that other Sequel (and sequel-sized) owners prefer? My seating position is sort of low--an Ikea modular couch--and I've been thinking of leaning the Sequels a little forward. As they stand now, they are pretty much level and sound OK, but I've noticed when I tilt them back, they open up but lose detail. When I tilt them forward, they have TONS of detail, but the soundstage seems to close in a little...

Room treatments are pretty much out of the question (SAF issues), and changing th eposition of the speakers or couch isn't really an option (space constraints).

Any suggestions? Opinions? Magic Spells?

Thanks,
--Richard

 

[Brad225]

I too have a low seating position with ear height at 36" above the floor. I found with my SL3s and so far with my CLSs that I use a forward tilt helped quite a bit with the detail but the stage was smaller. Try a bit less toe since the image is now stronger.

The SL3s I tilt slightly more forward than vertical to have the center of the ELS panel directly pointing at ear height at my seating position. The CLSs didn't require as much since I still have not tried raising them them off the floor yet. This angle would differ depending on how far away from your speakers you are when listening.

To adjust mine I would hold a framing square (the type carpenters use 16" on one leg and 24" on the other) on the front of the speaker and site along the top of it to see where the center of the panel would hit my listening position. Then adjust the tilt of the speaker tilt forward or back until the top plane of the square is pointing at you ear height when sitting. The sound will travel parallel with the front of the speaker (in theory). With the square being a 90 degree angle you should be able to direct the sound from the center of the panel at your ears. This would be a good place to start.

Another thing I have found helps the image/stage effect is to be sure your speakers are as close to vertical (plumb) side to side looking from the front and that they are parallel with each other. I use a 4' lever to set mine vertical but but you could use a string with a small weight like a nut from a nut and bolt tied to the string. Attach the string to a stick or something you can set or hold on top of you speaker with the string and nut hanging beside your speaker and gravity will do the rest. When the nut stops moving you will be able to see if the space between the string at the top and bottom is the same from the side of your speaker. If it is the same then the speaker is perfectly vertical if not adjust a front spike until it is. Be sure to recheck to see that the center of the panel is still pointing at your ears after you do this. If your floor is not level and one front spike is higher than the other it will affect the forward tilt if there are only 3 spikes on your speakers. It is really not difficult, it just takes some time but for me it has been well worth it.

In my listening/TV room I have to contend with a large cabinet (96"h x 65"w x 32"d) between my speakers. The CLSs are about 2" out from the sides and 10" in front of the cabinet. This has the CLSs about 8' from center to center on the panels with my listening position about 15' from the panels. Knowing the affect the big box has to have on the sound I have been playing with some acoustical panels around the cabinet to try to offset its mass. It was that or hire David Copperfield to make it disappear and reappear when needed. You talk about a budget buster. So since David was out of the question I decided to play with some 2" acoustical fiberglass panels to see what I could do to lessen its affect on the sound.

I started with 1- 2'x4' panel vertical leaned against the cabinet. It immediately strengthened the image in the center and if I moved it to the left or right along the cabinet the stronger image would move with it. I then tried 2 than 3 panels and covered the entire width on the cabinet 4' high the image was much stronger the full width. On some vocals that weren't strong it did diminish them some but I just removed some of the panels in that instance and it was fine.

I noticed that the stronger image didn't reach any higher than the 4' panel so I made a panel that was 65"h x 24"w. The height the CLSs would be when I try raising them. Once in place by itself the image raised to slightly above the top of the CLSs but appeared limited again to the 24" with of the new panel.

I placed 2 of the 2'x4' panels against the cabinet on either side of the taller panel and the image spread back wider again with the over all image/stage being stronger and more solid with much more image in the 12"+ just inside the speakers.

This allowed me to remove the toe in I was using to the point they are almost facing straight forward with out any loss of center image and it widened the listening sweet spot on the couch.

I will keep playing with it to see how it changes and I think the next will be to make all of the panels 65"h and see how it works.

Sorry to be so long Richard but I think some of this might help. Just keep playing with it until you get it where you like it.

 

[DTB300]

IAny suggestions? Opinions? Magic Spells?

Agree with the post above.

Keep playing around with tilt and toe-in and out and find that spot you like the best. There will be trade-offs with each setting.

Dan

 

[Jeff Zaret]

Agreed.
It really depends on you, your seating position and the room. You will know when it is right and when you have gone to far.

Jeff

 

[Rabbit house]

Richard,

I have the same experience as you. As my wife and my daughter are less than 5' tall, the sound from my sequel IIs at their ears height was not good.
So I tilted the panels forwards. But as you know, I put heavy weights on the top of the panels, it was very dangerous to tilt them though, of course, I put heavy counter weights on the electric boxes.

I think one of the reasons why ML speakers are not popular in Japan is that Japanese sometimes sit on the floor directly and can't get good sound in such a low ear height.

Shuji

 

[Dreamer]

I figured out a really easy and cheap way to contro the tilt on my Sequels. Rather than just screw the rear or front feet out of the holes a little (and go through al the headache of getting them level by trial and error), I took the rear spikes all the way out and slipped a few fender washers (1.25" with .25" holes) over the screws, and them screwed them back in to the speakers. I started with 4 washers (each washer is about 1/8" thick) on each spike, but that made the Sequels lean too far forward, so I backed them off to 3 washers each, and that seems to be just about right for the tilt angle I need for my low couch.

The great thing is that I KNOW they re all the same height, and leveling the speakers after this adjustment was as simple as screwing the cone/spikes in tight. They were level and stable the FIRST time...

And of course, the would work just as well on the front spikes, if you need to tilt them back. And because the hole is a liberal 1/4", they shoul work on almost ANY ML speaker that uses a 1/4-20 spike, which as far as I know is ALL of them, with the exception of the Summits.

Not knowing how many I'd need, I bought a box of 100 (ended up using 12) so if anyone wants to try this, I could probably send you a handful of these washers for the cost of postage.

--Richard

 

[Brad225]

I must be the intellect of ML owners I put some on my spikes last weekend because the room has a slanted floor and the spikes were out so far they were not stable.